This arrived yesterday evening (see why I need an extension?).
The promise is to “show you how to create an unstoppable movement to create an organization that’s fit for the future and fit for human beings.”
I’m looking forward to reading it, although I suspect it won’t go far enough for me.
I’ll keep you posted.
Humans love mash-ups. Collisions of disparate ideas to form a new, even more interesting idea. Given the chance, we mash-up all the time – most obviously to make each other laugh.
Surprisingly often, a mash-up leads to a breakthrough, and even more often, these breakthrough mash-ups come from an outsider asking a ‘stupid question’ – “Why can’t I see the picture now Daddy?”, “Why can’t I cast iron the way I used to cast brass?“.
If you’re running a business, you want mash-ups to occur, but not at the expense of delivering on your promises. So how can you achieve a balance?
Sparked by ‘Rebel Ideas’ by Matthew Syed, recommended and kindly given to me by Nigel Whittaker.
As you probably know, I have a bit of a book habit.
I read this one on Saturday, and for now all I’m going to say is that I recommend it.
I hope to share more later, but I’m asking permission first.
Have a great day!
I wonder who first drew a diagram?
According to one definition, “diagrams are simplified figures, caricatures in a way, intended to convey essential meaning”*.
That seems about right to me.
Some diagrams are so good at this, that once seen, you can’t help but assimilate the essential meaning. In an instant, it’s there, in your head forever, changing how you think from that point onwards.
This is one of my favourites:
My interpretation of a diagram from Alan Begg and Graham Williams
The explanation goes something like this. We all operate best in ‘Can Do’ mode, creative, autonomous, responsible, positive, active. But when knocked back for whatever reason, we have a tendency to slip down into one or other of the legs of the diagram.
If we go down ‘Can’t Do’, we become helpless, we freeze up, we become inactive and cautious. If we go down the ‘Won’t Do’ leg, we blame others, we feel resentful, angry, we become unco-operative, even disruptive.
The interesting thing is that all three behaviours have upsides. There are advantages to being in ‘Can’t Do’ or ‘Won’t Do’ that we may learn to exploit, and so keep ourselves there, instead of learning how to get ourselves back to ‘Can Do’, where we operate at our best.
But the key point is that these behaviours are learned. Which means we can unlearn the restricting ones, and learn to get back into ‘Can Do’ mode more quickly and easily, to the benefit of ourselves and the people around us.
I know where I go – I’m straight off down the ‘Can’t Do’ leg – but I also know how to get myself back up again quickly – and all I need to remind me how to do that is a glance at this simple diagram.
If you want to find out more, check out their book: Personal Power, How to get it… And keep it… FOR LIFE!
* Bert S. Hall (1996). “The Didactic and the Elegant: Some Thoughts on Scientific and Technological Illustrations in the Middle Ages and Renaissance”. in: B. Braigie (ed.) Picturing knowledge: historical and philosophical problems concerning the use of art in science. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p.9
I’ve just finished reading this book, the first of 3 I ordered after hearing Margaret Heffernan on the radio last week.
It’s a worrying and challenging read, exploring and explaining just how naturally easy it is for we humans not to see what’s in right in front of our eyes.
The reasons are varied, from feelings of affinity or love, wanting to fit in or please people in authority, too rigid systems, distance and disconnection, the bystander effect, a narrow focus on money or sheer cognitive overload and exhaustion. Sometimes, in the worst scenarios, such as Grenfell Tower or Texas City, several reasons combine and exacerbate each other.
The answer is to make ourselves see better. Systematically, intentionally, but never mechanically.
We do that by encouraging diversity of thinking and argument, by thanking whistleblowers, complainers and critics instead of sidelining them.
We do it by constantly reminding ourselves of what we are in business to do – to make and keep promises to human beings, our customers, and by eliminating the hierarchies, silos and long chains of command that get in the way of that.
We do it by creating transparent ways of working that keep our promise visible and support people to hold each other accountable as human beings for seeing what’s really there, and acting on it.
And of course the irony is that if we do these things well, we will create more value and do better financially. Because its not only bad things we make ourselves wilfully blind to, its also opportunities.
“Imagine a country. . .
Close your eyes, and put your fingers in your ears and shut out the angry chaos for a moment. Now take a deep breath and imagine a country you want to live in, a country you wish existed, a country where you’d truly feel at home. . .”
This book is a collection of some of the imaginings. In 500 to 800 words (or an illustrative alternative) within a month.
It’s well worth a read. But an even better idea would be to do it. To share this prompt with family, friends, colleagues, neighbours, networks. Then to discuss those imaginings. And decide how they can begin to be made real.
I don’t know about you, but several times over the last few years, I’ve wondered about moving. To a different part of the country, or even to a different country.
This book reminds me that it’s better to improve than move. And that I am responsible for the home I live in.
I’ve just finished reading this book, the first of 3 I ordered after hearing Margaret Heffernan on the radio last … Read More “Wilful Blindness”
Another read-in-one-go-over-the-weekend book, I recommend. “Lost Connections”, by Johann Hari.
Appropriate for Mental Health Awareness Week and beyond.
This is a book about what happens to human animals when they don’t get what they need from life:
It’s also about ways to put it right.
Luckily, for small business owners, putting it right is not that hard.
We can simply make sure everything we do in our businesses contributes at least something towards these things for the people we work with, the people we work for, and ultimately for ourselves.
It starts by reading this book.
And then maybe this one.
Yesterday, I caught a repeat of “The Spark” on BBC Radio 4. A conversation with Margaret Heffernan on preparedness.
There was far too much in this 30-minute programme to summarise here. I recommend a listen, but here are some of Margaret’s brilliant thoughts on preparing for various eventualities rather than trying to predict which will happen:
And if you want to take preparedness even further, I recommend “Antifragile: things that gain from disorder”, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.
My introduction to systems thinking was “The Fifth Discipline The art and practice of the learning organization”, by Peter Senge.
That was a long time ago, and you’ve probably never heard of some of the companies used as examples (People Express?), but if you want to learn to see the systems that exist in and around your business or organisation, and more importantly, how they in interact in ways currently invisible, this is a brilliant introduction.
Forgive the old-fashioned-ness of it, and have a go at spotting and sketching the systems that make a difference to your business.
You’ll soon learn to see things differently.